Parents pack St. Frances Cabrini in San Jose seeking answers

Julia Prodis Sulek jsulek@mercurynews.com

Posted:
11/28/2012 09:39:41 PM PST

Updated:
11/28/2012 09:59:22 PM PST

SAN JOSE -- Tempers flared during a packed parent meeting at St. Frances Cabrini on Wednesday evening as they demanded to know why a convicted pedophile was allowed to volunteer at a parish festival and why it took six weeks to get any answers.

In the midst of shouting and finger-pointing early in the meeting, Monsignor J. Patrick Browne, who stepped in to lead the parish after the pastor caught up in the controversy resigned last week, tried to calm down the crowd of some 300 parents.

Members of the parish council, the men's club and the school administration also tried to assuage fears, promising that safety and communications committees have been set up to assure the welfare of children and the prompt dissemination of information.

The volume softened as parents stood in line and took turns with the microphone. But emotions were tense and raw, with some upset that the Rev. Lieu Vu became the scapegoat for the controversy, and others disappointed that the church is maintaining a culture of secrecy.

"The Catholic faith stands for human dignity and the protection of children," said Melanie Borelli, 19, whose voice cracked while she described being let down by school and church officials who waited more than a month to deliver any explanation as to why a registered sex offender was allowed to volunteer at the Oct. 6 festival.

A woman said she was so upset by recent events that she pulled her grandchild out of the school and has left the parish.

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"I was so proud to be a Catholic," the woman said. "I was so upset beyond belief. I'm going to the public school, this has so tarnished me."

The open forum for school parents and members of the parish congregation comes after nearly two months of outrage by parents who were shocked that someone at the diocese would write a letter giving convicted pedophile Mark Gurries permission to volunteer in the sound booth at the festival.

Nearly two weeks ago, Bishop Patrick McGrath apologized to the parish congregation for a failure at the diocese level that resulted in an employee in the personnel department writing the letter. The employee has since left the diocese and last week, Rev. Vu, the parish priest, resigned after leaving Gurries unsupervised and defending him to angry parents at the festival.

Gurries, 51, the husband of a former St. Frances Cabrini teacher, was convicted in 2010 of molesting a young relative. He was sentenced to a year in jail. Within weeks of his release, he asked for and received the letter from the diocese. The California Penal Code allows registered sex offenders to be on school campuses only if they have written permission from the top school official and are supervised.

Bishop McGrath says he did not authorize the letter and maintains it is against diocese policy and should never have been written.

At the start of the meeting, some of the organizers said its purpose was to help the community "move forward."

But Joe Simas, 61, who has three grandchildren at the school, said that by moving on without openly resolving the issues, "nothing's going to change."

He pointed to the church's history of covering up priests' sex abuse and moving priests to other parishes as "the greatest sin."

Simas quickly left the hall. But he was stopped in the parking lot by Monsignor Browne, who ran out after him.

"What you said had to be said," Browne told him. "You're right on target."